


singing in the dark

by galta (yujael)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Road Trip, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 02:04:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10981068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujael/pseuds/galta
Summary: When a job doesn't go as planned, Jesse McCree ends up making a deal and agreeing to act as a guide for Hanzo Shimada to Sol - the City of Song, and one of the last bastions of magical knowledge - in exchange for freedom and a hell of a lot of money. It's an easy enough task for someone with his skillset, but the road to a job well done slowly becomes more and more complicated as forces that McCree didn't think he'd be tangling with close in on them.In hindsight, he should have known. The night had started off too easily for someone like him.





	singing in the dark

As far as prison cells go, McCree’s certainly seen better. Not that he’s seen many - he’s usually much better at avoiding capture - but of the cells he’s been in most of them at least had a window somewhere. In the prison built neatly underneath the sprawling streets of Sol, however, he doesn’t have much to use to tell the time of day. The soft glowstones lining the corridors outside his cell dim and reignite on a schedule that he’s sure is the cycle of the sun and moon, and occasionally the doctor who comes to see how his injuries are doing might be in a good enough mood to tell him upfront, but other than that it’s his own sense guiding him.

And with how the past couple weeks have gone, along with his persistent headache, he doesn’t have a whole lot of that, either.

At the very least, nobody’s gone and ordered him dead yet. The more they let him heal, the better his chances of getting out are.

Getting out and going where, though? The Shimadas aren’t easy folk to sneak by, even on a good day - even this far away from their home territory.

But he can’t just sit here until they see fit to let him out. The two day’s he’s been here already have set him on enough of an edge. He needs to muster up some of those skills that made him so tricky to get a hold of before pretty soon. He needs to see - he needs to know -

A door opens and closes somewhere down the hall. The echo of it just reaches McCree’s ear and he sits up straighter. Most guards would have slammed it. Most guards would also continue making noise, their uniforms clanking with almost every movement. But whoever is in here now is silent.

The glowstones are dimmed now, but they are enough to illuminate the man who stops in front of McCree’s cell. McCree recognizes him instantly.

Genji Shimada is, in a lot of ways, softer where Hanzo is sharp - in everything from just his facial features to the way he carries himself. But at this moment he looks nearly identical to his older brother. Sharp, cold, and thinking just a tad too much about something that makes McCree seriously question the temperature of the water he’s currently dunked himself in.

McCree doesn’t let that last bit show. “I take it there’s something you want from me? Haven’t seen you in a couple days. I was wondering if you’d come down to see me at all.”

Genji frowns at him but doesn’t say anything. He’s quiet for long enough that McCree almost breaks down and asks outright - what’s happening?

“You don’t look like much, now that you’re in a cell,” Genji says at least, crossing his arms.

McCree leans back against the wall. “Is that how you make all your new friends?”

“We are not friends,” Genji snaps.

“Then what are you down here for?”

Genji takes a few seconds to smooth out his brow and then, to McCree’s surprise, sits down on the ground in front of McCree’s cell. “I wanted to see the man who managed to kidnap my brother and drag him all the way down here for what I can only guess to be some half-baked attempt at power he doesn’t deserve. I want to know who he is.”

McCree’s aching head protests at the speed at which he leans forward again. “I did _not_ kidnap your brother, let’s just set the record straight on that.”

Genji doesn’t appear as well versed in keeping a straight face as Hanzo is. His twists easily. “I’m not just going to take your word for that, _thief_.”

“Lots of ways of being a thief,” McCree says easily. “I think you Shimadas know a thing or two about that. There are a lot of stories about me other there, only a few of them are true - and anything you ever heard about me taking people? Now that’s just a flat-out lie.”

Genji sighs deeply through his nose. “Then why are you _here_? Why were you at the empty spring with Hanzo? Why were you in Fairem with Hanzo?”

McCree runs his good hand through his hair. “Because he _paid_ me.”

Genji blinks. “Paid you?”

“Alright, I sneaked into your estate, that’s the one true part of your accusation. But I didn’t go in there to kidnap anyone. _He_ asked _me_ to get him out of there, to get him to Sol. We had a deal. Fairem wasn’t really part of it but it’s not my fault you decided to show up there and fuck up a good night.”

Genji falls silent for a moment. He keeps staring at McCree as he thinks, his frown slowly deepening. “Say I believe you,” he says slowly. “That does not explain either of your presences at the spring.”

The empty spring. McCree sighs. Just the memory of it - of all the blinding lights alone, nevermind everything else - is enough to make his headache worse. “No, because that wasn’t part of the deal. I was only supposed to get him here. Wasn’t my business what he wanted to do.”

“But you didn’t leave him here,” Genji points out.

No, he didn’t. Pride kept him going and dropped him in this cell.

“Couldn’t,” McCree says.

“Why not?” When McCree doesn’t answer, Genji’s lip curls slightly. “What were your intentions with my brother?”

Nothing Genji would like, McCree knows. Nothing that did them any good.

Silence falls. Genji waits for his answer, but nothing McCree has to say would get him out of this cell.

Finally, Genji says, “You have a story to tell.”

“Why not ask your brother for it?”

“You think I don’t want to? Because I do. But maybe it’ll please you to know that he hasn’t woken up yet.” Genji tilts his head when he sees McCree frown. “Or maybe it won’t.”

“Not really, because like I _said_ , I didn’t plan for any of this.” McCree grits his teeth. Two days he’s been down here. Counting the time it took them to get back to Sol, that’s almost three days that Hanzo has apparently been out. Not good. What’s happening up there? He almost asks Genji again.

“Then tell me what you _did_ plan. Tell me everything. Take care not to lie, either, because it might be that your life depends on it.”

“One condition.”

Genji looks at him with a choked laugh. “You think you’re in a position to negotiate?”

“Look, I’ll tell you everything, right from the start. All you got otherwise is a bunch of half-cooked theories. But when I do, you have to let me see him. Put me back here after if you want, but I have to know if he’s alright.”

“I take it simply telling you how he is won’t do.”

McCree laughs dryly. “If he was fine you wouldn’t be half as mad at me as you are.”

“Hm. True.” Genji purses his lips and considers McCree’s condition with his eyes closed for a moment. “Fine,” he says, his unflinching stare returning. “Tell me everything, and I will let you see him. Start talking.”

McCree leans back, letting some of the tension in his shoulder bleed away. A fine enough deal, as long as Genji holds his end up. Despite the headache, the last few weeks still come back to him. He hasn’t had much else to do down here but think about them.

It’d been night when it started, too.

 

\--

 

Sneaking into the estate is easy once the spurs come off. Almost surprisingly so. But this isn’t the first time McCree’s sneaked past the sights of the nobility. The shadows are his best friend as he navigates the gardens of the Shimada estate, searching for his way into the treasury.

All of the doors inside are guarded, lit gently by dim glowstones and watched by men hiding in the dark almost as well as McCree is. Getting in through any of them isn’t something he came equipped to do, even if the guards are few. However, there’s still another route into the treasury that isn’t guarded - one that supposedly only a few people know about. McCree hopes that’s the case anyway, or else he’ll be tracking down his employer for this venture and showing them how much he appreciates inaccurate intel.

 _Shaded by cherry blossoms, hidden by stone, an unlocked hatch awaits_ . So says the scratchy writing in his pocket. _Just keep pushing_. The badly drawn map accompanying it has led him this far, though, so he’s inclined to take the advice and believe that the rest will fall in just as well so long as he keeps his hat down.

The gardens take up a ridiculous amount of space within the walls of the estate - and it’s too dark for him to be able to even appreciate the beauty, shame - but eventually, the map leads him true. He finds a pair of large cherry blossom trees whose branches arch over a low stone bench between them, and just behind the bench is a boulder. Neither of them looks particularly light.

He glances around and breathes a little easier, though. The spot is hugging a cobblestone wall a good distance away from any entrance to the gardens, and the branches will keep him hidden from anyone that might look in from above. He doesn’t have all night, but the cover’s gotten him a bit of slack to figure out how to get to the hatch.

Hidden by stone... One of them has to move. The bench, small as it is, doesn’t look like it’ll go easily; small vines creep up its sides and feeling the ground around it doesn’t show him any disturbances. The boulder on the other hand - anyone could roll that back and forth as long as they had the muscle. And McCree has muscle. He’s just gotta keep pushing.

Maneuvering between the stone, the trees, and the wall is a little tricky, but he’s not short of any surfaces to brace himself on when he determines the easiest way to make the rock roll.

“Here goes,” he murmurs to himself as he gives the stone a couple test pushes. It doesn’t budge, as expected. Then he braces himself properly. “Better not be wasting my time here.”

For a moment, nothing happens except for his right foot sliding back in the dirt. He lets it slide until it presses against the wall and then shifts his position, trying to get some better leverage before pushing again, harder now. This time the boulder does shift - but so does his foot, again. McCree frowns and looks down behind him, squinting through the dark. His foot is still pressed against the wall, but some of the cobblestones are no longer even with the surrounding wall.

 _Hidden by stone_.

McCree leans against the boulder for a few seconds. “Way to mislead a guy,” he says, thinking of the note in his pocket. There hadn’t been anything there about the wall itself hiding the way. Although, it is stone… At least no one saw his trial and error, covered by the trees as he is. “Why do they always have to put riddles on me…”

The hatch swings open like a little door once he pushes it in enough, revealing a dark tunnel. It’s narrow and has its fair share of cobwebs, but neither of those has been enough to stop him before. He gets down onto his belly and starts crawling. Once he’s far enough in he shoves the door back with his feet, closing himself in with the quiet and the dark. Only then does he reach for his pocket, folding his arm almost painfully close to his body in the process, to pull out the small glowstone from its pouch on his belt. A few seconds later, the tunnel in all its cobwebbed glory is revealed to him in orange light. It’s a straight shot as far as he can tell. Thank goodness for small mercies.

As he inches forward McCree tries to picture what the treasury will look like on the other side. There’s no map of it. All he knows is that most of the Shimada family’s relics are stored inside along with all the money they don’t spend. And that somewhere among it all is an expensive necklace that someone wants badly enough that they’ll pay him thousands of scales to get it - more than twice the highest amount he’s been paid before now. _Why_ they want it isn’t any of his business. All he knows about it is that it’s blue, it’s glowing, and it doesn’t belong to the Shimadas. That last bit doesn’t surprise him. Lots of things don’t belong to the people he’s stolen them from. He figures he’s after an old family heirloom tonight.

The end of the tunnel is a little wider and doesn’t seem to open up to anywhere else at first, but the light of McCree’s glow stone reflects off of something in the corner. A tiny metal handle, almost too small for his hands. He has to tug one glove off to get his fingers around it and even then it feels like he could lose a nail on the stone wall. But one tug on the handle is all it takes for the little door to shift and swing inward.

He pauses before opening it more than a couple inches. The space on the other side is dark and quiet. A few breaths later and it’s the same. He opens the door the carefully, wincing and hiding the light of his stone when the door grinds against the ceiling of the tunnel. The sound barely echoes, though, and the room beyond is as still as ever.

He’s clear.

McCree grins to himself as he crawls out of the tunnels and stands up. The Shimadas are known pretty well for their sharp eyes and sharper blades, and ordinarily he’d never think about trying to sneak in here without good enough reason because he likes his head where it is. Five thousand silver scales is a hefty sum of money, though, and he’s got some pride to keep alive. And as far as riddles and bad drawings go, these ones got him pretty damn far. All he has to do now is find the right necklace and disappear the way he’d come.

The glowstone had dimmed to almost nothing when he’d hidden it, but holding it tightly in front of him for a few seconds revives it and illuminates a long aisle of shelves right in front of him. To his right, most of the shelves are full of glittering objects - statuettes and glass works and other expensive things gathering dust in the dark. To his left, a whole lot of unmarked boxes. He carefully lifts the lid of one and finds it full of smooth, round, pale red scales. He surveys the other boxes, trying to make a tally of them. Red scales aren’t exactly on the expensive end of the spectrum, but enough of them is… still a lot of money. He’s definitely made it to the treasury.

But nothing here is glowing by itself, so he moves on. At the end of the aisle, he rounds the corner and finds more shelves. They’re spaced out from each other, forming wide aisles with a row of pedestals down the middle. There are a lot of boxes and a lot of relics. His fingers are itching a bit to figure out which aisle has the weightiest scales, so to speak, but he reminds himself of why he’s here. He can have a good look after he’s found what he’s looking for.

Even if, judging by the size of the place, it’s going to take a good look just to do that. He’s not sure where to start. The heirloom is expensive and old, he knows that much, but if there’s a hierarchy in how everything has been organized in here he’s going to need a full sweep or two before he can see it.

“Might as well start right here, then,” McCree whispers to himself. He’s got time, a couple hours at most. It shouldn’t take half that long to get from one end to the other.

The second aisle doesn’t have any jewelry at all. The third has a pretty heavy looking necklace riddled with gold and nacre, but nothing glowing. The fourth looks much more promising. At the opposite end, he catches something glimmering - something too far away to be catching the dim light of his glowstone.

Hello, beautiful, he thinks as he starts toward it.

He takes one step into the aisle before he feels something cool and thin press against the skin under his chin.

“Don’t move,” says a deep voice from behind him.

McCree swallows, his mind blanks for a split second before he steadies himself and tries to map a way out of the situation he’s just stepped into. “Not moving,” he replies, glancing down. There is a large hand holding a sharp, curved dagger to his throat. He curses silently - he hadn’t heard a thing. He’d dropped his guard and let someone get behind him, somehow.

He should have thought a little more about how easy it’d been to get in here.

“How did you get in here?” The person behind him asks.

McCree is almost inclined to respond truthfully before he hears a sniff over his shoulder.

“Ugh, you took the waterway.”

He had done that, actually. He’d used the waterway as a shortcut to get into the upper quarter of the city in the first place. One of its many entrances had let him out right outside the Shimada walls. Didn’t matter to him that his clothes were a little damp afterward.

“I did do that,” McCree replies, careful of how his skin shifted against the blade.

“But how did you get this far into the compound?” The voice asks. There’s almost a curious note in it, but before McCree can answer they speak again. “Turn around.”

The blade is lifted away but comes back as soon as McCree’s done turning to face the person who’d caught him. Before him now is a man, shorter than McCree but broader. His hair is tied back tightly and everything about his face is as sharp as his knife, from his eyes to his lips, which are pressed into a thin line. He looks about as impressed as McCree is at how this night is currently going - but his expression is also calculating. Slowly, the man’s brow lifts slightly and he tilts his head.

“Ah. I’ve heard of you, Jesse McCree.”

It was probably the hat, McCree thinks. That, and his face is posted around a fair number of places. “That’s me, alright. You’ve got me at a bit of a disadvantage, now.” He nods at the dark blue clothes that the man wears. It’s a mostly nondescript outfit, but even in the low light, McCree can see the fabric is a fine make. “You don’t look like one of the guards here.”

“I’m not.” The man says curtly. Then, softer, “But that won’t get you out of trouble.”

McCree tilts his chin up. “I’m pretty good at doing that myself, no need to worry.”

The man is silent for a moment, eyes flicking around McCree’s face. McCree wonders faintly how much longer he has until his last chance to duck away is gone.

“Not this time,” the man says, barely moving his lips. “Why are you here? Take care, I’ve little patience for liars.”

McCree just barely manages to hold back a snort. “If you know me, then you’ve already got an idea why I’m here. And you’re probably right. I mean, look at all this.”

The man doesn’t look at anything but McCree. “There are no riches for thieves who get caught.”

We’ll see, McCree thinks. He gestures to the knife. “Am I supposed to take that to mean you’re going to do something with that?”  

“I could just have you arrested right here.”

McCree smiles. “And ruin my good track record with the law?”

The corner of the man’s mouth twitches. “How much were you hoping to get out of this?”

McCree answers completely honest. “Five thousand silver scales.”

The man’s eyebrows tick up. Then he glances down. “Your pockets are looking a little light for such a sum.”

“You just happened to catch me in the middle of looking for the silver aisle.”

Another twitch of the lips. “Five thousand silver scales, you said… That is only a small fraction of the fortune stored here. Hardly worth the trouble of chasing a thief down.”

“Five thousand is a lot for thieves,” McCree says, shrugging.

“Are you only a thief, Jesse McCree?” The man asks.

Riddles again, McCree thinks, frowning. “I’m a thief right now, what’s it matter? Are you going to arrest me or not?”

The knife presses down on McCree’s windpipe just slightly and McCree tenses, getting ready to dart away before the job’s done - but then the knife is gone altogether.

“Or not.” The man says, lowering his arm. He slides the blade into a sheath on the back of his belt, leaving McCree confused in front of him. “Instead, I have a proposition for you.”

Well, there’s a turn he never saw coming. Free of the blade at his throat, McCree reaches up to adjust his hat as the last few moments sink in. “A proposition? Gotta admit that’s a bit out of the blue.”

“If you don’t want it, I can either arrest you now or simply kill you.”

McCree has the feeling that he’s lost all but his least favorable chances of escape at this point. He is somewhat interested in seeing where this road goes, though. “I’ll take my chances with whatever it is you’re offering, thanks.”

“Good choice. I’ve heard you take more work than sneaking about noble treasuries,” the man says. “What about escorting?”

McCree considers that for a few seconds. “What, like a bodyguard?”

“Close. I’m more than capable of protecting myself. I’m much more in need of someone familiar with the region beyond the Singing River. You hail from there, do you not? Half the tales we hear of you here come from there, at any rate.”

McCree breathes deeply for a moment. It’s becoming more and more apparent that the only way he’s going to be able to actually do his job is if he either gets this man out of the way for long enough - which, if he’s being totally honest with himself, looks like one hell of a feat, considering not only how the man is built but also how he came upon McCree - or if he plays along long enough before turning around and trying again. Both are looking pretty tedious.

The night had been going so well, too.

“Okay, you got me. You’re right about that, too. I know that side of the river a lot more than this one. But look, I know I’m not exactly in the position to be making demands here-”

“No, you're not.”

“But I think I deserve to know who’s offering me work and why. Especially when they caught me in the middle of some other work. You’ve still got me at a disadvantage, you know.”

The man’s face softens somewhat. “That is true. Are you considering it, then?”

“Not a lot of options left, is there?”

The man smiles. “Also true. Very well. My name is Hanzo Shimada, and I am offering to pay you, Jesse McCree, more than five thousand silvers for you to take me across the Singing River to Sol.”

Out of all the possibilities, McCree thinks, it doesn’t sound so bad. He knows of Sol as well as anyone else, one of the largest and longest standing cities this side of the world. He even knows a few ways of getting there. Then his mind stutters. Shimada, he’d said. Hanzo Shimada.

Fuck. He’s not sure if he’s in hot water or not.

“Okay, let me get this straight - because I don’t know much about you other than the fact that you’re a lord’s son and you can be pretty damn deadly, so this is kind of a curve ball you’re throwing at me. You’ve just caught a man sneaking around your home and decided to hire him?”

Hanzo seems to rest his hands behind his back. Probably on the hilt of his blade. “If you don’t want to accept then I am more than willing to simply arrest you for trespassing.”

“Or, you decided to hogtie him.”

“What’s the matter? You came here for money, no? I am offering money. I will pay you for your trouble.”

McCree knows that very well. They’re standing in Hanzo’s family treasury after all. “That’s not what gets me. If you need a guide, why not just get some of your own men to go with you? I know you got them, even if half of them are taking the night off right now.”

Hanzo closes his eyes briefly. Another missed chance, McCree thinks belatedly when Hanzo replies. “They are off because I told them to be. My plan was to leave on my own tonight because I have work that needs doing in Sol.” He squints up at McCree. “Important work, but also work that I must do outside of my family’s sight and reach. They cannot know about this.”

There’s the missing piece. Hanzo must have come down here for some money for his apparently unapproved trip. McCree tips his hat, smiling. “And you just happened to find me.”

“And I happened to find not just anyone, but a man whose skills and escapades are known even here. Think about it. You’ll have more than what you came here for at the end of it, and once we reach Sol you can leave and,” Hanzo waves his hand, shrugging, “do whatever it is you want. You will escape the more unfortunate consequences of disagreeing because even though I am leaving regardless of what you decide I cannot just allow a thief to come and go in our home as he pleases.”

“You really _aren’t_ leaving me any choice.”

“Not unless you think you could best me.”

Thinking again, the knife is a bit of a threat, but McCree’s still resourceful. Truthfully, a duel could go either way. At the same time, though, he knows it’s the unfavorable option. He caught, and sneaking in again won’t be easy next time around, but it’s his best shot. Plus, like Hanzo said, it’s a better payment in the end. If his most recent employer wants their heirloom sooner rather than later, then they’ll have to be disappointed.

McCree holds his hand out. “As long as my head stays where it is, I think we got a deal.”

Hanzo looks almost surprised before he schools his face again and shakes McCree’s hand. “I was hoping you’d be the reasonable sort in person.”

“You say that like you’ve been wanting to meet me.”

There’s another small smile. “Perhaps, if only to see what all the fuss was about. This is not the place for idle conversation though. We are leaving tonight. Follow me.”

Right to business. Alright. Hanzo passes by McCree and heads toward the back of the treasury. McCree follows, scanning the shelves as they go for that glimmering object. He suppresses a sigh when he finds that it isn’t a necklace, but an odd looking bell. Clearly imbued with something for it to shimmer the way it does up close. He doesn’t ask about it. The necklace is still out of sight, even as Hanzo leads him to the next aisle over. “What are we doing back here?”  

“You were off by one,” Hanzo says, his voice wavering with what sounds like laughter as he approaches a shelf of unmarked boxes and opens one. He digs out a handful of silver scales and holds them out to McCree. “This is the silver aisle. Here. Consider this payment upfront. The rest I will handle later, provided we are successful.”

McCree did not exactly come here with pocket space for very much, but he takes the scales nonetheless. Hanzo reaches into the box again and drops a few into his own pocket before handing McCree another handful. “Mighty fine of you.”

“You might as well have something now,” Hanzo says as he closes the box and turns toward the back wall. “There is one more thing I need. Then we leave.”

The back wall is empty from what McCree can see, but Hanzo heads there anyway. McCree follows, trying to figure out where it is that Hanzo’s going to need the glowstone, but then Hanzo lifts one hand in the air and the back of the treasury is suddenly awash in gold light. Glowstones set into the wall provide more than enough light for this side of the treasury, but the light keeps coming as Hanzo places his hand on a symbol carved into the center of the wall. The family symbol of the Shimadas, he remembers. The two dragons glow gold for a few seconds, then blue, and McCree gets the distinct feeling that he is not supposed to be watching this, even despite his new agreement with Hanzo.

 _Reckless_ , an old voice says in the back of his mind. _As always_.

The blue light disappears, and so does a whole chunk of the wall. McCree blinks and almost misses the small smirk on Hanzo’s face. It disappears quickly, though, like the illusionary wall. Hanzo steps inside the revealed room and McCree gets as far as the doorway before stopping short.

The room is small and empty except for one pedestal, and from just over Hanzo’s shoulder, McCree catches a glimpse of what’s on it. It’s a necklace - _the_ necklace. He doesn’t catch many details about it other than how it’s a small blue pendant on a sturdy silver chain before Hanzo is blocking his line of sight, but he knows without a doubt that that’s what he came in here for in the first place.

He also knows that he would never have found it if Hanzo hadn’t appeared. McCree’s own skills with magic are non-existent. Short of accidentally stumbling into the wall and discovering that it wasn’t what it seemed, there would have been nothing he could do. Now, Hanzo holds the chain in both hands as he clasps it around the back of his neck and then hides the pendant under his clothing. When he faces McCree again, McCree can hardly even tell that anything had changed. The glow of the blue stone isn’t strong enough to show through any fabric, it seems.

“All set?” McCree asks.

Hanzo nods. “Yes. We make for Sol immediately, as quickly as possible.”

“Deal’s a deal,” McCree says. "You hold your end up and I’ll hold mine. On to Sol we go.”

It’s the only choice McCree has now.

**Author's Note:**

> I love fantasy AUs and I can't believe Overwatch doesn't have more of them. I also made a promise to a friend (thank you for editing, Amari!) that I would get off my lazy butt and write something, and here we are! It's been some time since I've written properly and so I do not have a regular update schedule, but I will try to keep updates from becoming few and far between, just bear with me while I shake off my dust.


End file.
